Psychologist wins poetry award

Poet Marian Kaplun Shapiro would like to refute what she believes to be a common misconception: that all poetry is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to understand.

"There are poems I don't understand, and I don't like them," said Shapiro, a psychologist who lives in Lexington. "I think it's pretentious to write about something so personal that it's not worth anything to anyone else."

Shapiro strives to use poetry as a way to share what she loves best. Her effort has been recognized by Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation, a nonprofit literary society that recently honored her with the Massachusetts Senior Poet Laureate Award.

She also won the award, which is given to American poets age 50 or older, in 2006.

Shapiro's winning poem, "La Touriste Sans Souci," mixes widely known and understood French words with English to describe her enjoying a walk in Paris before eagerly returning to the hotel to join her husband. The poem is similar to those in her first book of poetry, "Players in the Dream, Dreamers in the Play," published in May 2007.

Shapiro has additionally published two chapbooks, "The End of the World, Announced on Wednesday" and "Your Third Wish."

Cindy Cantrell